CHRIS ANTHEM
CHRIS ANTHEM
ABOUT
Chris's paintings encompass a diverse aesthetic featuring baroque cherubim, adopting African tribal markings seen en route, and with a dose of middle-east politics to ground it. Following his previous use of non-traditional materials (dress-pattern paper, retail bags, cow hides) these recent works are painted on vibrant stripy canvas awnings from the tower blocks of Beirut. Subtly constructed with immaculate attention to the dynamics of paint, colour and surface; they are an affirmation of life in the face of adverse geographical conditions and conflict.
Chris Anthem is a British painter working between the UK, Lebanon and Sudan. Born in the southwest in 1976, he studied at Liverpool and the Slade School of Fine Art, London.
His initial link with the Middle East was a project he ran developing sculpture/installation art projects with homeless children in Cairo. He met his wife, a human rights lawyer, in Yemen in 2005 and they’ve been bringing up their two young children in Beirut and Sudan.
An intervening period found him in Ethiopia working from a studio in a shantytown in Addis Ababa, travelling out and spending time painting with the Mursi Tribe in the South Omo Valley.
In 2015, due to the political uncertainties caused by the conflict in neighbouring Syria, they left Beirut and came to Bath.
Chris's work can be found in the collections of their Excellencies the El Thani of Qatar and Byblos Bank Lebanon. Recent projects have included painting dresses for Basil Soda Haute Couture and a residency at the Budapest Art Factory in Hungary.
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